Cigar smoking has been known for centuries. Quality cigars are hand-made and produced to certain predetermined standards. Machine-made cigars are also produced to certain predetermined standards. These standards include the length of the cigar, which may range from about four (4) inches to nine and one-quarter (91/4) inches, but is usually between four and one-half (41/2) inches and eight (8) inches, and the girth or diameter of the cigar, which may range from about three-eighths (3/8) inch to slightly more than one (1) inch. The diameter is typically measured in sixty-fourths (1/64) of an inch, with the number of sixty-fourths being designated as the ring size. Thus, a cigar having a diameter of forty-nine sixty-fourths (49/64) of an inch would have a ring size of 49.
According to A. Bari, The Cigar Companion (Running Press: Philadelphia, Pa., 1993), at pages 44-47, there are no fewer than sixty (60) possible cigar sizes. Some Havana brands have as many as forty (40) different sizes, while most non-Havana brands have six (6) to 10 (10) sizes, according to the same source.
While many manufacturers use similar standard sizes for their cigars, they typically assign their own proprietary names for the various sizes of the cigars they make. These proprietary names, however, do not typically appear on the paper band or ring on the cigar itself. Rather, the paper band typically contains only the manufacturer's name. Table 1 lists examples of sizes and names of various cigars according to The Cigar Companion.
Each manufacturer has its own blend, and each manufacturer generally uses a different blend of tobaccos in each of the sizes of cigars it makes in its product line.
Thus, a cigar smoker who has enjoyed a particular cigar cannot use the manufacturer's name on the paper band to determine the name or size of the particular cigar. Accordingly, such a cigar smoker has no way to purchase the same cigar.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Length Ring Gauge Name(s) ______________________________________ 91/4 47 Gran Corona, Montecristo A 77/8 49 Double Corona 71/2 38 Especial 7 47 Churchill 7 36 Long Pantela 61/2 42 Lonsdale 61/8 52 Pyramids, Torpedo 6 42 Corona Grande 53/4 39 Culebras 55/8 46 Corona Gorda 51/2 52 Belicoso 51/2 42 Corona 5 50 Robusto, Rothschild 5 48 Hermoso 5 42 Petit Corona 41/2 40 Tres Petit Corona 41/2 26 Panatela 4 40 Perla 4 30 Demi Tasse ______________________________________